US denies most Iraqi compensation

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An analysis by an American newspaper has found that the US Army
has denied about 75 per cent of the thousands of compensation
claims submitted by Iraqis against the US military, which
determined that combat accounted for most of the deaths, injuries
and property damage.

The Dayton Daily News reported its analysis of 4611 civil
claims in Iraq - hundreds alleging abuse and misconduct by American
military personnel - showed just one in four resulted in some type
of payment.

Army officials said the database inspected by the Daily
News was incomplete. The newspaper had gained access to it
through a freedom of information request.

The records paint a previously unseen portrait of the toll the
war has had on civilians, offering hundreds of descriptions of the
kinds of incidents that have fuelled the growing resistance and
hatred toward the US-led coalition.

Yesterday, insurgents attacked a US convoy near the western
Iraqi town of Khaldiya, police and witnesses said. They said
several vehicles were damaged in the blast and spoke of several US
casualties. The US military had no immediate comment.

The attacks came after America's top enemy in Iraq claimed the
killing of nearly 50 unarmed army recruits in a cold-blooded
assault on fledgling security forces slated to take part in a
crackdown on rebels before elections due in January.

The Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's newly renamed
group, the Al-Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq, said it
killed 48 "apostates" in Saturday's attack on army recruits
north-east of Baghdad. Iraqi authorities said 49 men died.

Another militant group, the Army of Ansar al-Sunna, said in an
unverified internet statement it had assassinated the police chief
in the northern city of Arbil and threatened to kill the Kurdish
leader Masoud Barzani. An Interior Ministry spokesman described the
victim of the attack as the "chief of guards" in Arbil, not the
police chief.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Council of Britain considered sending a
delegation to Iraq to plead for the life of the British-Iraqi
hostage Margaret Hassan, and contributors to Islamist websites
urged the kidnappers to spare her. The 59-year-old director of CARE
International's Iraqi operations was seized last Tuesday in
Baghdad.

The analysis by the Dayton Daily News found that about 78
per cent of the claims made by Iraqis are for incidents that
occurred after President George Bush declared "major combat
operations" over on May 2, 2003.

Because coalition forces are immune from lawsuits and criminal
charges, Iraqis' only option is to file for compensation under the
Foreign Claims Act.

At least 437 claims seek compensation for Iraqi deaths and 468
for injuries, but those numbers are probably just a portion of the
actual totals, the newspaper said.

More than 1000 claims involved vehicle accidents, by far the
largest category in the database. More than 400 claims involved
destruction of crops, trees, livestock or water sources.

The newspaper's analysis said the average payment for a death
was $US3421 ($4626). Iraqis were also sometimes given up to $US2500
in sympathy payments without any paperwork, said Jack Bournazian, a
lawyer who helped Iraqi lawyers to file claims.